Assignment- Indian Writing in English (Pre-Independence)

Use of Figurative Language in “The Fakeer of Jungheera” 

Name- Kavisha Alagiya

Paper- Indian Writing in English (Pre-Independence)

Roll No- 15

Enrollment no.- 2069108420200001

Email id- kavishaalagiya@gmail.com

Batch – MA 2019-21

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Introduction:

‘The Fakeer of Jungheera’ is a long narrative poem written by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio.   Henry Derozio was a teacher, a poet, and a patriot who is regarded "the National Bard of modem India". There were fewer female writers during his time and the literature of his time rarely contained the female sensibilities and he was probably the first writer to write against social evils at a very younger age.  

“The Fakeer of Junhgeera is the mouthpiece of Derozio's revolutionary notes in which Derozio's philosophy mixed with a revolt against the rotten and diseased order of Hindu orthodoxy is displayed. The story of a brahmin widow who escapes Sati and was carried away by a Fakeer, only to be widowed, her father and kinsmen again cames and kills the Fakeer. Derozio's poetry, as Bradley-Birt, shows, "unbounded enthusiasm", "Wealth of imagery", and " a passionate resentment of wrong". (Internet source)

Here a detailed understanding of the meaning of narrative poetry as a literary term and so develop an understanding that helps to view “The Fakeer of Jungheera” as a long narrative poem and besides and a macro understanding of figurative language on the basis of my selected text with by applying two devices of ‘figurative language’ and viewing the poem from that viewpoint. 

What is a Poem? Narrative Poem?

A literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm is called a poem. It differs from poetry as because Poetry, according to Coleridge, is the product of imagination working on the objects of life and nature.  It is an activity of imagination, idealizing the real and realizing the ideal.  As colors are to the art of painting, words are to the art of writing poetry. According to Coleridge, a legitimate poem can be defined as when the parts must mutually support and explain each other; all in their proportion harmonizing with and supporting the purpose and known influences of, metrical arrangement.

A narrative poem in literature is a poem that tells a story. It has a full storyline with all the elements of a traditional story. These elements include characters, plot, conflict and resolution, and action. Although a narrative poem does not need a rhyming pattern, it is a metered poem with clear objectives to reach a specific audience, these poems have been borrowed from oral poetic narratives from different cultures. Narrative poems include old epics, lays and ballads.

The Fakeer of Jungheera as a narrative poem:

‘The Fakeer of Jungheera’ contains all elements which a narrative poem demands. It can be said that by and large, it has a theoretical framework same as a story. The poem has a storyline which revolves around the prime characters like Nuleeni and the Fakeer who manages to rescue her from the ‘Sati ritual’. The plot is very tense as it focuses on social malice. It follows the unity of action in narration with a beginning, conflict and then resolution. The poem is largely composed of rhyming words.

Figurative Language:

Figurative language is a language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation. When a writer uses literal language, he or she is simply stating the facts as they are. Figurative language, in comparison, uses exaggerations or alterations to make a particular semantic point. Figurative language is very common in poetry but is also used in prose and nonfiction writing as well.

M. H Abrams in his Glossary of Literary terms describes figurative language as,

“Figurative language” is a conspicuous departure from what users of a language apprehend as the standard meaning of words, or else the standard order of words, in order to achieve some special meaning or effect. Figures are sometimes described as primarily poetic, but they are integral to the functioning of language and indispensable to all modes of discourse.

Abram further observes that Simile and Metaphor are the two tools to describe the meaning of language with a relation with that compares the objects with relatable images.

In a simile, a comparison between two distinctly different things is explicitly indicated by the word "like" or "as."

In a metaphor, a word or an expression that in literal usage denotes one kind of thing is applied to a distinctly different kind of thing, without asserting a comparison.

Application of Figurative Language-

The narrative poem starts with the touch alliterative lines of Simile where ‘like’ is used to compare Sun who is seen as a golden urn,

“Sweet smiling on its mother- there

Like heavenly hope o’er mortal care

The sun is like a golden urn

Where floods of light forever burn,

And fall like blessings fast on earth,

Bringing its beauties brightly forth.”

Here alliterative lines are describing the sun as if it is of golden urn or it has a similarity with a vase with its cover of a narrowed neck. It is further elaborated as if it’s a flood and a plural form attributed to it which increases the value of it which has a terrible fall but with showering beauty. This description by Derozio gives a typical environment especially a romantic form at surface level but the close reading of the text informs about social malice crept deep in society. The style of narration is full of vivacity and lucidity.

“How like young spirits on the wing

The viewless winds are wandering!

Now o’er the flower-bells fair they creep

Walking sweet ordours out of sleep;

Now stealing softly through the grass”

Young spirits, viewless winds these words are giving hope when the poem begins. The way the hope is described and further is personified with the gentleness of love and the soul of a woman that is Nuleeni. This is the feeling which is linked with a woman Nuleeni and further is a representation of the entire class of that society.

“She, like a heaven-wrought statue, stands­

'Tis thus that woman fair should be

Worshipped as a divinity;

Just when her beauty beams so bright,

As too intense for human sight;”

Here, the character of Nuleeni is given an ornamental touch of poetic lines. The first canto begins with a sequence of Sati rites; Nuleeni is moving towards the pyre of her dead husband amidst ritualistic incantations. Derozio has compared her with heaven- wrought statue. She is standing still and is as steady as rock. Her beauty is too glorious that rarely she could be understood by her society.

“As in her ear the spell is said,

That word that shall her passport be

To regions of Eternity”

These three lines reflect the symbol of her departure to heaven. She has been allotted a passport and soon she will be going to heaven. It is an allusion to the Mantra that Brahmin pronounces in the ear of victim Nuleeni.

Now comes Metaphor, Let’s have a detailed understanding of Metaphors used in the text.

“And from her head the wreath she takes,

Seven circles round the pile she makes,

And now with baleful brand on fire

She slowly mounts the dreadful pyre.”

In this stanza, each and every word is given a metaphorical element like pyre is attributed to quality of dreadfulness. And all the elements are connected and woven. Further in the poem, she is compared with a pale flower, a broken lily, and a white dove.

“And she that lonely victims, stands the while

Like a pale flower beside the funeral pile.”

“While woman’s brighter eyes are glancing

Like light upon the seraph’s wing.”

A seraph is a type of celestial or heavenly being originating in Ancient Judaism. The term plays a role in subsequent Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Derozio in his poem develops the metaphor of commerce comparing it to the relationship of people in love; he concludes that "Affections are not made for merchandise." The poem highlights the fact that utilitarian ideas of the East India Company had a far stronger impact on Bengal than the proselytizing work of Christian missionaries.

"Although I once lived for nearly three years in the vicinity of Jungheera, I had but one opportunity of seeing that beautiful and truly romantic spot. I had a view of the rocks from the opposite bank of the river, which was broad and full at the time I saw it, during the rainy season. It struck me then as a place where achievements in love and arms might take place, and the double character I had heard of the Fakir, together with some acquaintances with the scenery, induced me to form a tale upon both these circumstances." (Edwards, 23-24)

Conclusion:

In a nutshell, It can be said that after examining “The Fakeer of Jungheera” by Henry Derozio, I believe that figurative language adds a new dimension to the examinations and critical evaluation of any literary work. We can surely have a better understanding of any literary work through the binocular of figurative languages like simile and metaphor. Without it being used, evaluation of any literary work would become monotonous and as a result, less engaging.

References-

Pulugurtha, Nishi. "The Fakeer of Jungheera". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 June 2016
[https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35722, accessed 10 October 2019.]

M. H Abrams ‘Glossary of Literary terms’

Henry Derozio ‘The Fakeer of Jungheera’